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KCEN-TV
'''KCEN-TV is the NBC affiliate for Waco, Killeen & Temple, Texas. Licensed to nearby Temple, it's owned by the family of the late Frank W. Mayborn, publishers of the Temple Daily Telegram. With studio & transmitter on a 25 acre tract of land 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Eddy on I-35, KCEN-TV broadcasts locally on DT ch. 9. KCEN-TV also has a LP satellite rebroadcaster, KMAY-LP on ch. 23 in Bryan, which serves the Brazos Valley area. KMAY-LP began rebroadcasting KCEN in 2003. Previously, KCEN maintained a LP ch. 62 for the Bryan/College Station area for a number of years. History The station was founded in 1953. It was owned along with KTEM-AM 1400, which Mayborn established in 1936. Mayborn, however, realized that Temple/Killeen & Waco were going to be a single TV market (although they are separate radio markets). To signify his goal to serve all of Central Texas, he decided to call his new station KCEN-TV (for CEN'tral Texas) rather than KTEM-TV (for '''TEM'ple). It was the 1st TV station to serve the Waco/Temple/Killeen market & the 2nd TV station in Central Texas behind KTBC in Austin by a year. KCEN signed on with 1 of the tallest towers in the Southwest @ 830 feet (253 m). The station originally carried programming from all 4 major networks @ the time, but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost CBS to KWTX-TV in 1955 & later that year, DuMont halted operations. This left KCEN as an NBC affiliate with a primary ABC affiliation. When KXXV signed on in March 1985, it took over the NBC affiliation, leaving KCEN with ABC. However, that fall, KXXV & KCEN switched affiliations & KCEN returned to NBC. In 1981, KCEN moved to a new 1,924-foot (586.5 m) tower, expanding it's coverage area to almost 29,000 square miles - 1 of the largest in the nation. The station now provides @ least secondary coverage from the fringes of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to the fringes of Austin. The station was the 1st in Central Texas to broadcast in closed captioning, in 1989. In January 2009, a sale of both KCEN & KMAY-LP to London Broadcasting Company of Dallas, Texas was announced, with a purchase price of $26 million. KCEN broadcasts on cable ch. 3 in Waco, Killeen & Temple, while KMAY broadcasts on cable ch. 6 in Bryan/College Station. KCEN's analogue audio was heard on 87.7 MHz until Feb 17, 2009 in much of central Texas, since NTSC-M analog ch. 6 is adjacent in frequency to the FM radio broadcast band. KCEN also maintains business offices @ 17 South Third Street in Temple, as well as sales & news offices in Killeen & Waco. The station ended it's analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009 & KCEN's DT branding became '''KCEN 9. News/Station Presentation Newscast Titles *''KCEN-TV News'' (1953-1972) *''Channel 6 News'' (1972-1977) *''NewsCenter 6'' (1977-1984) *''NewsWatch 6'' (1984-1990) *''NewsStrong 6'' (1990-2000) *''NBC 6 News'' (2000-2009) *''KCEN 9 News'' (2009-present) Station Slogans *''The Strength of Central Texas'' (1990-1995) *''Where Local News Comes First'' (1995-2004) *''Where Central Texas Comes First'' (2004-2007) *''Live, Local, Now'' (2007-present) Newscasts * KCEN 9 News Texas Today (5:30-7 AM) (Monday-Friday) * KCEN 9 News First Edition (11:30 AM-12 PM) (Monday-Friday) * KCEN 9 News @ 5 (5-5:30 PM) (Sunday-Friday) * KCEN 9 News @ 6 (6-6:30 PM) (Monday-Saturday) * KCEN 9 News @ 10 (10-10:35 PM) (Daily) External links *Official site